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not the "typical" sleepy baby

Hi..
My baby is 10 days old. She was not induced and born naturally at 40 wks. Weighed 8.1 now 8.9 (though 8.9 that was dressed with a onesie, diaper, and socks on) She is my 4th. I did nurse the others (1st 4 months, 2nd and 3rd self weaned at 15-16 months). She came out eating her fist, and sucked great, my milk came in in 20 hours (that shocked me!) She started out nursing at every 3 hrs. But now, this baby is SOO sleepy. This morning she slept for 7 hours straight. I can arouse her to wake some with squirming and she will even put her fist to her mouth signalling me, but as soon as 2-3 sucks come, she is totally out (and then I get letdown.. OUCH!). The last 3 days she is averaging eating every 5 ish hours. I am now logging this out of concern, and we have taken her through a rabbit trail of 6 doctors because of other concerns that all came to be normal (though on one issue, possibly apnea, the doctors are in disagreement so thus far she is not being monitored). She is sleeping with us, belly to belly with me, and still she is not wanting to really nurse at all at night. I am not sleeping much because I am worried about her breathing and not eating. I do every 2 hours make a half hour attempt at waking her. This includes ice cubes on feet, cool wet wash cloths wiping whole body down, moving her to many positions, ect, and like I said, she seems partially aroused, but no matter what, always will try and fall back immediatetly asleep.
My questions..
Anyone else dealing/dealt with this and how? (Dr is telling me this is normal)
Also, should I pump at a certain interval to keep my supply in? Ive never had a supply problem before, and I have always had an overactive letdown, but this is so early in the game of nursing her, Im a bit afraid it will go away...

Re: not the "typical" sleepy baby

Hey
Congrats on the new baby. My 2 sons were both born at term, actually pastdue--11 days and 13 days respectivally. To me that makes a diff in how they feed. The number one way to tell if they are getting enough is the output. What goes in must come out----6 wet, 3 dirty per day at 10 days is normal I believe. Wet is more crucial than dirty. We don't want dehydration. I did try to wake mine but if after an hour they persisted and were still asleep and all other indications were normal, I let them sleep. Mine ate more and had more alert time than 36-39 wk babies at birth. But they also were harder to wake up, when they slept, they slept hard. Judge what is going on by the output and weight gain and you should be fine. HTH and keep us posted. We love to hear updates.

Re: not the "typical" sleepy baby

Here's a link of an article that has some signs of dehydration. The article is about nursing thru an illness but it lists several signs to look out for.
This site is not a LLL site but it has a lot of good info and a lot of Moms on here use it.

Re: not the "typical" sleepy baby

Her diaper output sounds good, so that's one big worry off your shoulders.

At 10 days, she has not only regained her birth weight, but is several ounces above it (I believe a diaper weighs abt 2 oz, and onesie plus socks can't be more than another 2 oz., so she's at least 5 oz above her birth weight.)

Yes, I can certainly see how disturbed and worried you must be with a newborn who sleeps so long and hardly stays awake to nurse at all. But somehow, it's working out just fine with her output and growth. Keep an eye on those things, but try not to worry unless the situation changes.

As for whether or not you should pump -- since there are no concerns about her milk intake and growth, I would not start pumping. You have a good history as a milk-producer, so it's a safe bet that the capacity is there -- pumping unnecessarily might just lead to oversupply and foremilk/hindmilk imbalance issues.

Keep us posted, but for now it sounds like her extreme sleepiness is not causing any serious problems.

Re: not the "typical" sleepy baby

My baby woke up on Saturday evening...
Nobody here can explain it.. I went to take a shower
so dh took her in to me and let her sit on my chest and she woke up and LOVED the water. I handed her back to him, he enjoyed her new state of alertness and pooed all over him, so he got in and rinsed her off and handed her back to me... She has been like a "normal" newborn ever since. AND she is nursing about every 3 hours ever since, which is wonderful.
I am going to get her weighed tomorrow morning, so hopefully everything will add up and all make sense. Thanks for the advice!